U.S.-Palestinian Public-Private Partnership

Thanks to Walter Isaacson and the Aspen Institute for leading this challenge of coordinating and enlisting private sector support for this initiative.

We are so pleased that Sandy Weill, Lester Crown, Jean Case, and Ziad Assali have agreed to serve as co-chairs of this important and ambitious initiative, which will benefit greatly from so much talent and experience.

Aspen’s Middle East Strategy Group has been working on these issues for some time, and we are deeply grateful for their leadership. Toni Verstandig, the Executive Director of the Middle East Strategy Group, who has been instrumental in getting us this far and has been tireless in her commitment, as well as Ambassador Margaret Scobey and Andrea McDaniel, director of our office of private sector outreach.

As Walter mentioned, I had the opportunity last summer of traveling to the West Bank to help launch the Middle East Investment Initiative—a partnership the Aspen’s Middle East Strategy group produced that links OPIC loan guarantees with Palestinian capital to provide affordable, longer-term loans to small and medium-size businesses that otherwise would not be able to access them. It is a concrete example of what the public and private sectors— American and Palestinian--can accomplish by pooling our resources and ideas.

I was also impressed with the efforts of our USAID program for the West Bank and Gaza. American taxpayers are building essential infrastructure, improving education and health care, and laying the foundation for democratic institutions. Perhaps most relevant to our discussions today, USAID programs are helping to develop business partnerships in agriculture, providing assistance to business, and supporting apprenticeships for young Palestinians. USAID will be a principal partner in making our new public-private initiative a success.

During that trip last summer, I met with several of Prime Minister Fayyad’s ministers—and I am delighted that Her Excellency, Minister of Youth and Sports, Tahani Abu Daqqa is here with us today. They have a vision and a plan for their country that we seek to support. I remember coming back from my trip and talking with Secretary Rice about how impressed I was with Her Excellency and other Ministers I met in Prime Minister Fayyad’s government – Secretary Rice subsequently went and met with a number of them – she was struck by how the young people viewed themselves as occupied victims and needed work to empower them as citizens.

This new initiative is one of the more complex and challenging private-public partnerships that we have attempted, but I cannot think of one more worthy of our collective effort. President Bush and Secretary Rice know that in our quest for peace, it is crucial to improve the living conditions and the economic opportunities of the Palestinian people.

A few months ago, Secretary Rice asked me to come to a meeting with Walter Isaacson – he didn’t know it yet, but she had heard he was the perfect person to lead this effort. This is a man who has written biographies about two of our nation’s most distinguished diplomats -- Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger – so he understands the importance of waging peace. And he knows the many challenges ahead of achieving the President’s goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and prosperity.

Getting to peace is hard. Getting to peace and prosperity is even harder. I’m sure Walter knows from his research on his recent biography of Einstein that the great thinker said, “If we have courage to decide ourselves for peace, we will have peace.” At the Annapolis summit last week, we saw that key leaders – Israeli, Palestinian, American, the Arab UN Quartet -- have decided themselves to work for peace. For the first time in many years, we have a moment of real opportunity to prepare seriously to create a Palestinian state and an Israeli-Palestinian peace. There is much hard work to do, but Annapolis was the launching point for substantive negotiations. We have seen the international community will support the path the parties have chosen and President Bush and Secretary Rice have pledged the unwavering support of the U.S. in reaching this goal.

At the same time, a parallel track is being established to improve conditions on the ground for the Palestinians. I have been with Secretary Rice as she has visited the region and I can assure you that she deeply understands the need to improve the quality of life for people there. She has seen the conditions that everyday people endure and is deeply dedicated to helping create jobs and markets and economic growth – to creating a climate of hope that tomorrow can be better.

As you know, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair has been asked by the Quartet to look at the economic infrastructure and to create opportunities for Palestinian economic development and growth by working both with the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government. The Secretary believes this public-private partnership can be an important American contribution to Prime Minister Blair’s mission, and we are committed to working closely with his team as we move forward.

Secretary Rice asked that we focus particularly on Palestinian youth-- to develop programs and opportunities that will help prepare them for citizenship and self-government and for jobs that can provide opportunities for them and their families.

We need to demonstrate in concrete, tangible terms that we welcome the emergence of a Palestinian state and that its citizens have a stake in our global economy.

The human resources available to this enterprise are impressive. Palestinians have always placed high value on educating their children, Palestinian professionals have succeeded in the United States and around the world, and Palestinian businessmen run successful businesses. Unfortunately, economic opportunities have been difficult to sustain given the troubled security and political climate of the West Bank and Gaza. Violence and extremism have destroyed too many dreams.

Today we are focused now on the future, not the past. We need to provide opportunities for Palestinian youth to develop leadership skills, to enjoy educational and sports programs that channel their energies to productive ends. We need to nurture new businesses and to generate jobs. All the experts suggest that one of the most promising areas for investment and job creation may be in the IT sector, to move ahead with tomorrow’s technology.

American is known as a land of opportunity – this is a moment of opportunity for the Holy Land. I have a special passion for this work – since I am leaving government next week – it is a last big endeavor for President Bush and Secretary Rice – and among the most important. I remember coming back from my very first trip to the Middle East a couple of years ago and asking to see President Bush. I told him then and believe it today that the single most important thing American cam do in public diplomacy with the Arab and the wider Muslim world is to achieve the goal of a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel.

Today we are all stepping forward together – and Walter has set an ambitious agenda for us. I look forward to seeing the results.